the car could have told that I was in the car. I was silent.
As I knelt on all fours before them my mind was racing.
Why had they done this? Perhaps they did not wish anyone to know that I was in the car with them. Perhaps they did not wish for me to be recognized with them, or they with me.
Perhaps they were driving to some secret location, which they did not wish me to know. I was frightened. I did not know what their purposes were. After a time they let me lie down at their feet, with my legs drawn up, still covered with the blanket. I lay near their shoes. Once they even stopped for gas. 'Do not move,' I was told. I was perfectly quiet, at their feet. They drove about for at least four hours. It was all-I could do to keep from rubbing my thighs together and moaning.
Then the limousine pulled to one side and stopped. The blanket was lifted from me.
'You may get out now,' said the man who seemed in charge, pleasantly. I rose to my feet and, crouching down, my muscles aching, stepped from the limousine. The driver bad remained in his place. The man who had been to my right when I was sitting, he who seemed to be in charge of the others, bad opened the door. I stood outside then, on the curb. There was traffic. The lights were bright. I was in the same place where I had originally been picked up, at the southwest corner of the intersection in Manhattan. It was a little after midnight.
I watched the limousine drive away, disappearing in the traffic. I did not really understand what they had done, or why they had done it. I stood back on the sidewalk then. I was extremely disturbed. I was almost trembling. Too, inexplicably, it seemed, I was terribly aroused, sexually.
Why had they done what they did?
For the first time in my life I had been put to the feet of men, and kept, uncompromisingly, in ignorance and silence.
They had dominated me. I almost trembled, filled with unfamiliar sensations and emotions. These feelings, these responses, were not simply genital. They seemed to suffuse, overwhelmingly, my whole body and mind.
I became aware of a man asking me for directions.
I turned away from him, suddenly, and hurried away. I had not yet been out of the limousine for five minutes. I could not yet speak.
I took my hand from the shower handle. A few drops of water descended from the shower head. It was warm and steamy in the bathroom, from the warm water which I had been running. It was about ten or eleven minutes after eight P.M. It was Tuesday. Yesterday, on Monday evening, at eight-P.M., I had received another call. I had been instructed to take a shower at precisely eight P.M. this evening. I had done so. I slid back the shower curtain. There was steam on the walls and mirrors. I looked for my robe. I had thought I had left it on the vanity. It was not there. I stepped from the shower stall, and picked up a towel and began to dry myself.
Suddenly I stopped, frightened. I had thought I had heard a noise oil the other side of the bathroom door, from beyond the tiny ball outside, perhaps from the tiny kitchen or the combination living and dining room.
'Is there anyone there?' I called, frightened. 'Who is it?'
'It is I, Miss Collins,' said a voice. 'Do not be alarmed.' I recognized the voice. It was he I took to be the leader of the men with whom I had been in contact, that of he who had first seen me at the perfume counter.
'I am not dressed,' I called. I thrust shut the bolt on the bathroom door. I did not understand how he could have obtained entrance. I had had the door to the apartment not only locked but bolted.
'Have you cleaned your body?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said. I thought he had put that in an unusual fashion.
'Have you washed your hair?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said. I had done so.
'Come out,' he said.
'Do you see my robe out there?' I called.
'Use a towel,' he said.
'I will be out in a moment,' I said. I hastily dried my hair and put a towel about it, and then I wrapped a large towel about my body, tucking it shut under my left arm. I looked about for my slippers. I had thought I had put them at the foot of the vanity. But they, like the robe, did not seem to be where I thought I had left them. I slid back the bolt on the bathroom door and, barefoot, entered the hall. There were, I saw, three men in the kitchen. One was he whom I now knew well. The other two, who wore uniforms; much of a sort one expects in professional movers, I did not recognize.
'You look lovely,' said the first man, he whom I recognized, he who was, by now, familiar to me.
'Thank you,' I said.
'Make us some coffee,' he said.
I proceeded, frightened, to do so. I was very conscious of my state of dishabille. Their eyes, I could sense, were much on me. I felt very small among their powerful bodies. I was conscious, acutely, how different I was from them. 'How did you get in?' I asked, lightly, when the coffee was perking. 'With this,' he said, taking a small, metallic, pen like object from his left, inside jacket pocket. He clicked a switch on it.
There was no visible beam. He then clicked the switch again, presumably turning it off.
'I do not understand,' I said.
'Come along,' he said, smiling, and getting up from behind the kitchen table. I followed him into the combination living and dining room. I noticed the coarse, fibrous texture of the rug on my bare feet. The other two men followed us into this room.
'There is my robe,' I said, 'and my slippersl' The robe was thrown over an easy chair. The slippers had been dropped at its base.
'Leave them,' be said.
I knew I bad not put them there.
He opened the door to the apartment and looked outside.
He was seeing, I supposed, if anyone was in the hall.
He stepped outside. 'Lock and bolt the door,' he said.
I did so. I then stood, waiting, behind the locked, bolted door. I glanced back at the other two men, in their garb like professional movers. They stood behind me, in the apartment, their arms folded.
I heard a tiny noise. Fascinated, I saw the bolt turn and slide back. I then heard the door click. The man re-entered the apartment. He closed the door behind him. He returned the penlike object to his pocket.
'I did not know such things existed,' I said, Inadvertently, frightened, I put my hand to my breast. I was very much aware that only a towel stood between me and this stranger.
'They do,' he smiled.
'I didn't bear you enter,' I said.
'It makes little noise,' he said. 'Too, you had the water running.' 'You knew, of course,' I said, 'that I would not hear you enter.' 'Of course,' he said.
It had been in accordance with his instructions that I had been showering at the time.
'What are those things?' I asked. I referred to two objects.
One was a large carton and the other was a weighty, sturdy metal box, about three feet square. The metal box looked as though it would fit into the carton, and, presumably, had been removed from it, after having been brought into the room.
'Never mind them now,' be said.
The metal box appeared extremely heavy and strong. It reminded me of a safe. I wondered if it was. Too, I wondered why it had been brought to the apartment. 'Is that a safe?' I asked, indicating the box. It was sitting on the rug, like the carton. It was squat and stout, and efficient looking. Because of its weight it was impressed, with sharp lines, into the rug.
'Not really,' he said. 'But it may be used for the securing of valuables.' I nodded. There seemed little doubt about that. It appeared to me, indeed, that it might serve very well, by virtue of its strength and weight, for the securing of valuables. I conjectured that I, with my strength, would scarcely be able to move it about.
'What is in it?' I asked. I was curious. In the side of the box facing me I could see two small holes, about the size of pennies. I could not, however, because of the light, and the size of the holes, see into the interior of the box. The interior of the box was, from my point of view, frustratingly dark. 'Nothing,' he said.
'I see,' I said, in an acid tone. I was certain he was not being candid with me. 'Come over here,' he said,
